$15m r&d centre brings motion experts together

07 August, 2017

The precision motion and nanopositioning specialist PI (Physik Instrumente) has opened a $15m research and development centre at its global headquarters in Karlsruhe, Germany. The 10,000m2 (108,000ft2) centre brings PI’s development teams together in a shared space, intended to promote interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration.

The building, which took less than a year to complete, gives the company 200 additional workplaces, as well as test and measurement laboratories, cleanrooms and environmental chambers, and a 200-seat auditorium.

“We operate in a high-tech sector that has a profound effect on the future,” says PI’s founder and president, Dr Karl Spanner. “There are no modern high-performance microchips being manufactured that PI is not involved in. Motion, positioning, measuring, and controlling with the highest accuracy will continue to be our objective in the future and the main reason why we made the decision to build the technology centre.”

“We want to develop the products of tomorrow in the new technology centre so that not only we, but also our customers, will be able to maintain market leadership in the future,” adds PI’s chief finance officer, Markus Spanner.

PI's new technology centre took less than a year to build

PI employs more than 1,000 people worldwide in 15 subsidiaries, with r&d and engineering centres on three continents. Its motion and positioning portfolio ranges from individual nanopositioning components to complete custom-engineered motion systems for precision industrial automation applications.